Ione, Dead the Long Year and Astigmatism

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Year 9 English – Writing Task – Week 7 Many poets use figurative language throughout their poems, thus giving their texts an illusion of different meaning and ideas, creating a poem that is more complex than it seems. The poems “Ione, Dead The Long Year” and “Astigmatism” both include hidden messages and illusions, which can be interpreted accordingly by the reader, showing that the simplest of actions can become the starting point for the most complex of poems. The poem, “Ione, Dead The Long Year” is about a spiritual journey of a man who is mourning the loss of someone who was close to him, thus revealing the subject of the poem. A deeper insight into Passage 1 (Ione, Dead The Long Year) shows the character to be going through a phase of melancholia – compared to the phase of blinding anger that the character of Passage 2 (Astigmatism) is going through on his spiritual journey. By analysing the two poems and their complex structures, the reader discovers a similarity on the subject, of spiritual journeys, however a difference in the context of the journey. The difference of representation in each subject is conveyed in different styles and voices, leading to differences and similarities within the style of each poem. The first poem, (Ione, Dead The Long Year), written by Ezra Pound, is composed in a way where the poem portrays the thoughts of the character – the reader receives a ‘head-on’ perspective of the character, thus evoking deep emotion within. Pound’s use of patterns of imagery are used to create a tone and to suggest rather than state, the poet’s theme; his use of personification in describing the flowers, portray his feeling of loss and how that seems to also be reflecting on his surroundings, “And the flowers, Bend over with heavy heads. They bend in vain”. The syntax in Pound’s poem also creates emphasis on certain sections, emphasising the
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